nteucom
6ukc uniyeusity mc6ic&.l ccntcti
VOLUME 19, NUMBER 10
MARCH 17, 1972
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Heart Station Broadens EKG Services
A lot of areas in the Hospital have
been upgraded recently with the current
renovation program, but the new
appearance of the Heart Station didn't
come about entirely through provisions
made in the Planning Office.
Bright red smock coats for all the
employes and attractive green and white
cubicle drapes for the patient rooms are
the result of a special study three of the
department's technicians did for IBM
Corporation. Mary Rigsbee, Virginia
Blalock and Doris Bray made extra
recordings of EKG's on electromagnetic
tape and sent them off to New York.
They received $5 a tracing from IBM and
a total of $2,500 for the department.
In addition to the lab coats and
curtains, their earnings enabled them to
donate $500 to the Medical Center's
building fund.
This undertaking, however, is just the
latest in a long line of successful projects
initiated in the Heart Station over the
past two years.
In April of 1970, Dr. Joseph C.
Greenfield Jr., professor of medicine and
assistant professor of physiology, became
head of the department. Under his
direction, a reorganization of the Heart
Station was begun in an effort to improve
the efficiency of handling its growing
cardiogram load as well as to increase the
capacity of its services.
Previously open from 8:30 to 5
Monday through Friday and half a day on
Saturday, the station expanded its hours
18 months ago to complete coverage 24
hours of every day. "This makes for a
significant improvement in patient care,"
Dr. Greenfield said.
To make round-the-clock services
possible, two employes were added to the
department, while Physicians' Associates
and students worked as part-time
employes on the night shift. The station
now has a total of 13 full-time
technicians and four part-time ones.
IMPROVED CARDIOGRAM SERVICE- Mary Rigsbee, chief technician in the
Heart Station, records an electrocardiogram with one of the new $4,000 machines
responsible for the department's improved services. The machine not only records
three leads at a time, but also requires no developing wait. The EKG was processed in
less time that it took the photographer to snap this picture, (photo by Lewis Parrish)
The major part of the work of the
Heart Station is recording
electrocardiograms (EKG's). An EKG is a
graphic tracing of the electric current
produced by the contraction of the heart
muscle or, more simply stated, a picture
of the heart's action.
One of the key elements responsible
for the station’s faster and broader service
is a new EKG machine, which records
three leads at a time. From the moment a
technician pushes the start button, it
takes just 10 seconds to record an EKG.
The new machine is considered far
superior to the old photographic one. It
not only enables the doctor to have his
copy of the EKG immediately, but it is
also much easier for the technician to
operate. Because there is no developing
wait, the entire process is speeded up and
the need for darkroom space is
eliminated.
The Heart Station has five of these
3-channel machines, one of which is kept
in the Emergency Department. Each one
cost close to $4,000.
Another change in the department was
the institution of a vector cardiography
unit. A vectorcardiogram is a Polaroid
(contirtued oh page four)